WHY DOES DEVELOPMENT VARY AMONG COUNTRIES?

Chapter 9: Development

RICH AND POOR

The world is divided between relatively rich and relatively poor countries.

Geographers try to understand the reasons for this division and learn what can be done about it.

MDC’S VS. LDC’S

Earth’s nearly 200 countries can be classified according to their level of development, the process of improving the

material conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology.

Economic challenge for MDC?

Economic challenge for LDC?

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

Created by the United Nations A country’s level of development is a

function of three factors: economic, social and demographic

Economic: GDP per capita Social: Literacy rate and amount of

education Demographic: Life expectancy

ANNUAL GDP PER CAPITA

Fig. 9-2: Annual gross domestic product (GDP) per capita averages over $20,000 in most developed countries but under $5,000 in most less developed countries.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Gross domestic product is the value of the total output of goods and services produced in a country Dividing this number

by the total population gives you the contribution of each individual to that year’s wealth

MDCs Typical worker receives

$10-15 per hour Usually has a minimum

wage US GDP/capita is $40,000

LDCs Typical worker receives

$2/hour Average GDP/capita is

$4,000

ANNUAL GDP PER CAPITA

Fig. 9-2: Annual gross domestic product (GDP) per capita averages over $20,000 in most developed countries but under $5,000 in most less developed countries.

TYPES OF JOBS

Average per capita incomes are higher in MDCs because people earn their living by different means

Primary Sector: agriculture Secondary Sector: manufacturing Tertiary Sector: service

What can the percentages of these sectors tell us about a country?

EMPLOYMENT CHANGES BY SECTOR

Fig. 9-3: Percentage employment in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors of MDCs has changed dramatically, but change has been slower in LDCs.

PRODUCTIVITY

Productivity is the value of a particular product compared to the amount of labor needed to make it.

Workers in more developed countries produce more with less effort because they have access to more machines, tools, and equipment to perform much of the work.

HAVES AND HAVE NOTS Raw Materials Consumer

Goods Telephones

per Population

SOCIAL INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT More developed

countries use part of their greater wealth to provide schools, hospitals, and welfare services.

In turn, this well-educated, healthy, and secure population can be more economically productive.

STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS

Fig. 9-5: Students per teacher, primary school level. Primary school teachers have much larger class sizes in LDCs than in MDCs, partly because of the large numbers of young people in the population (Fig. 2-15).

PERSONS PER PHYSICIAN

Fig. 9-6: There is a physician for every 500 or fewer people in most MDCs, while thousands of people share a doctor on average in LDCs.

CALORIES PER CAPITA

Fig. 9-7: Daily available calories per capita as percent of requirements. In MDCs, the average person consumes one-third or more over the required average minimum, while in LDCs, the average person gets only the minimum requirement or less.

DEMOGRAPHIC INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT - LIFE EXPECTANCY

The U.N. HDI utilizes life expectancy as a measure of development.

Other demographic characteristics that distinguish more and less developed countries include infant mortality, natural increase, and crude birth rates.

Babies born today can expect to live into their early forties in less developed countries compared to their mid-seventies in more developed countries.

With longer life expectancies, MDCs have a higher percentage of elderly people who have retired and receive public support.

INFANT MORTALITY RATE

About 90 percent of infants survive. . . in less developed countries, whereas in MDCs more than 99 percent survive.

The infant mortality rate is greater in the LDCs for several reasons: . . . malnutrition or lack of medicine. . . (or) poor medical practices.

NATURAL INCREASE RATE The natural increase rate averages more than 2

percent annually in less developed countries and less than 1 percent in more developed ones.

Greater natural increase strains a country’s ability to provide services that can make its people healthier and more productive.

CRUDE BIRTH RATE Less developed countries have higher natural increase rates

because they have higher crude birth rates. The annual crude birth rate exceeds 40 per 1,000 in many LDCs,

compared to less than 15 per 1,000 in MDCs. More developed and less developed countries both have annual

crude death rates of about 10 per 1,000. Two reasons account for the lack of difference. First, diffusion of medical technology. has eliminated or sharply

reduced the incidence of several diseases in less developed countries.

Second, MDCs have higher percentages of older people. The mortality rate for women in childbirth is significantly higher in

LDCs.